Shadows of the Kraken: Remastered & The Lost Chapters

[CatastrophicFailure]

"Darnitol", now that's a good one.

I was going to use something else, but didn't want to run afoul of the mods.

[Ethanadams]

Moar.

[Ethanadams]

Moar please me need moar

[CatastrophicFailure]

Chapter 7: Duna Rising

Mission day: 89

The crew watched intently as data from the ARNDL probes flowed across their monitors. From their current position behind Kerbin, they were in an ideal spot to relay the incoming data down to Mission Control. For Edmund, it added insult to injury. The mission was nearly flawless. Atmospheric densities, soil compositions, gravitational resonances, the numbers were perfect. Edmund could feel his hopes being swept away in that flow of information.

The simple truth was, this base had only been a hardware test anyway. To test equipment in situ for a flight to Duna. It was only through the intervention of Chadvey Kerman, so long ago now, that the powers that be had even agreed to put a crew here in the first place. And that was only approved after the Company agreed to cover the cost. And only if the crew had a primary objective to investigate the anomaly so near to Chadvey's chosen landing site.

Edmund had watched all this unfolding, long before he was even chosen to go to the space station. He had watched... and waited. Made the right friends, said the right things to the right people, and chosen the right crew to back him up. Edgas was the smartest Kerbonaut in the corps, Billy-Bobrim was the most adaptable, and Edmund's own skill... it just wasn't enough. Here, at the end, it just wasn't enough.

You played the hand you were dealt, and Edmund had been dealt a looser. He'd played it the very best that he could, but... At one point, not so long ago, he'd thought he'd still had all the time in the world, time maybe for another hand, but then... he closed his fist tightly against the tremor.

Time's up. Dealer calls.

It was over. As Edmund watched the data flow across his screen, he thought he'd sell his own soul for just a little more time.

***

Edgas watched his display, feeling something he hadn't felt in a long time. Eighty-nine days here. Not even halfway, yet. But with this... there would be virtually no chance of an extension. They might even be called home early. And Edgas was glad for it. He slept now, but he still felt terrible. The shadows still moved in ways they shouldn't. He scratched at his stubbly chin. He thought Edmund looked more and more haggard, and Billy... was getting worse. He felt so drained. A hundred and ten more days. It sounded like forever. But for the first time in forever, Edgas had hope.

Hope.

Edited May 19, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[Ethanadams]

Moar?

[Dres]

Give them a break, it's probably is hard to come up with this stuff, because it is really good. they should deserve a little rest between chapters.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Give them a break, it's probably is hard to come up with this stuff, because it is really good. they should deserve a little rest between chapters.

Them? You mean there's two of me? No wonder I've been feeling so drained lately.

[Dres]

Oh sorry, I derped. I just just used engrish! (Who else remembers that?)

[CatastrophicFailure]

It's all good. I actually appreciate the encouragement. Chapter 8 is about done, and will go up once I get home. Might be a few days on the following installment. I do most of my writing on my down time @ work during the week, and the next 2-3 chapters really need to be released at once. Or Ethanadams may kill me lol.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Chapter 8: A Change of Plans

Mission Day: 101

Another tiring duty cycle had just ended. Outside, münar night laid on the small base like miasma. Edgas was on the hab deck, preparing for another long night. Edmund passed wordlessly on his way up the ladder to the lab. Edgas blinked at him. His eyes looked sunken, his skin gray.

He looks like death, Edgas thought. He had noticed the bruises some time ago. Edmund tried to conceal them, but something like that couldn't be hidden in such close quarters. What's happening to us?

He was about to go turn around to go to his quarters, when Billy came out of his. He looked... off.

"Hi Ed." He said mildly.

"Billy? W--"

"I need a favor."

"Sure," he forced a smile, then was about to speak, when Billy pressed something small and round into his hand.

"If something happens, w... will you please make sure Annazzzzzztasia gets this?"

Edgas felt a chill between his shoulder blades. He gaped in shock. Still, he tried to smile, "why would you say--"

"Please?" Billy said. Something in his eyes...

"Of course, buddy," Edgas said, going numb, "anything for you."

Billy's smile seemed less forced, "Thanks Ed, you're a good friend."

And with that, he was gone, back into his cubicle. Edgas just stood there, staring widely at nothing. He looked at the object in his hand. It was a small, gray, sparkly rock. It felt... warm.

***

Edgas sat on his cot, dread circling him like a predator. He had been afraid before, but that was the distant, indistinct fear of wandering alone in the darkness. This was something different. This was the sharp, stinging fear of knowing the monster was real, that it lurked there in the darkness, seeing you, smelling you, stalking you; and you knew at any moment, a moment of its choosing, you would feel its cold, clammy digits closing around your throat.

And you were helpless.

Edgas sat, and stared down at his hands. They were ashen, weak, skeletal, like corpse-hands. Realization slowly dawned on him.

"This place," he said softly, his mouth barely moving, "its killing us." Panic surged around him.

"We have to leave." He looked up, "we have to leave right now! We have to--" He looked out the window into the endless dark.

No...

He was certain he saw alien forms moving out there.

No.....

Crossing that gulf, making their way to Selena with nothing but their suit lamps to hold back the consuming darkness filled him with a terror he could not fathom.

No... not through that.

He sat back down heavily on his cot. Dawn, then. As soon as the sun peeks over the lip of the crater. I don't care what it takes, Edgas thought, if Edmund won't listen to reason I'll...I'll stab a flag pole through my hand if I have to! Force a medical evac. We have to get out of here, or we'll all... He half sighed, half sobbed. For now, he would have to endure. He took a blue pill from its bottle, and tried to swallow it. It took many tries, and when he finally did, it burned all the way down. Almost as if something didn't want...

No sense in entertaining such thoughts now. What's done is done. Edgas reached, and turned off the small lamp.

There was still light.

He looked around, confused. On a shelf above him, a small container of Goo was glowing brightly. That's....odd, he thought, but his mind was already growing fuzzy from the medication. Edgas threw an old shirt over the Goo, and laid down.

First light... at first light, we go home.

He almost believed it.

Edited May 19, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[KSK]

Sounds like Billy should check any RTGs they might be using.

[Dres]

Great as always! +rep to you!

Edited February 21, 2015 by Dres

[CatastrophicFailure]

Chapter 9: The Shadow Falls

It had him!

It had him and he couldn't move! Couldn't scream! It was...!

He was...!

He was in his cot, tangled in a bedsheet. Edgas sat up so fast he nearly threw himself against the wall. He sat there, eyes wide, trembling, panting, drenched with sweat. Somehow in his thrashing, he had turned on the lamp.

"S...sleep... paralysis," he gasped, "night... terrors... Perfectly normal... Happens all the time...." Something... he needed to remember something... but the harder his mined groped, the more it slipped away.

He shivered, putting his head in his hands. In the low gravity, sweat didn't flow right. It clung thick like a greasy syrup. Edgas ran his fingers through sopping hair, sending big, round drops of sweat falling slowly to the floor.

Plip... Plip... Plip...

He, sat, trying to slow his breathing. Glanced at the mission clock. Still hours until the next duty cycle. Something... there was something important... but it was gone now. The feeling was already fading in that way nightmares do. He hated this place, hated the darkness. Maybe when this was all over, he thought, he could transfer to one of the polar research outposts. He'd heard it never truly got dark out there on the ice, only a strange kind of twilight. He could tolerate twilight. He wiped more clinging sweat from his arms. And it was always cold there. That was all right, the cold never bothered him anyway. Edgas liked the cold.

Edgas realized he was parched. His water glass laid empty on the floor. He left his cubicle, to go down to the galley for more, when he noticed Billy's door was ajar. Then he heard it again.

Plip... Plip... Plip...

A cold dread began inching up his spine again. Tentatively, he started down the ladder. The base was darkened, lit only by small red safety lights hidden in corners and crevices. As he passed through the EVA deck, the hanging, empty suits seemed to cast wordless accusations at him. At the edges of his vision, the shadows stirred and conspired.

Plip... Plip... Plip...

Edgas entered the galley, growing more and more dismayed. His palms felt cold and damp. Then he saw it. The hatch to the bottom compartments was open.

Plip... Plip... Plip...

He descended the final ladder to the cramped passages below. Ice coursed through his veins. Then he heard something else. A strange, rhythmic keening sound. Edgas turned, searching the four passage ways, and there he saw him huddled against the hatch to the life support module.

It was Billy. Edgas's breathing came in short gasps. He crawled into the passage, not wanting to, but unable to stop himself. Billy was making the sound. Was he laughing? Sobbing? Edgas couldn't tell. And all the time... Plip... Plip... Plip... Edgas approached, reaching a hand towards Billy's back, and that's when the nightmare came crashing back. He knew, he knew, he knew what he would see, but he couldn't stop! Couldn't turn!

"I saw it, Ed."

Billy's face was in his hands. It looked like he was chewing.

"I shouldn't have, but I saw it."

Billy's hands were wet. Everywhere was a horrible wetness that glistened in the dim red light.

"It floats..."

Edgas wanted to scream, wanted to run but was pulled inexorably onward. He knew, he knew, and now he was reaching out his hand, and now Billy was turning, turning, and his eyes!

HIS EYES!

What's he done to his eyes?!

"It floats..."

His EYES!!

Edgas saw him reaching out, felt the nightmare closing in around him, clawing like corpse hands.

Reaching... reaching for him...

"Do you see it, Ed?"

Edgas Kerman screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

***

Chapter 10: A Seed

It was over. It was finally over. They were going home. Billy's face was bandaged, and he was heavily sedated. With difficulty, Edgas and Edmund were able to get him into his EVA suit, and down to the surface. The darkness crushed in around them, but Edgas didn't care anymore. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.

With the thoughtless movements that come from long hours of drill and practice, they attached a tether and pulley above Selena's hatch, and using it to secure Billy's limp form, carefully ascended the ladder, keeping him between them. They had practiced this procedure a dozen, dozen times, always knew it was a possibility, but not like this. No, not like this. The last time they had performed these movements, they had been laughing, joking, chuckling with Edmund as he swung loose and his head banged into the simulated hull again and again. Now, not a word was said that was not required. They moved swiftly, efficiently, perfectly.

Mission Control had powered up the lander remotely while the pair tended Billy, and now, with him secured in the lower couch of the small capsule, they made their final preparations for launch. With a thump and a whoosh, the return stage began its slow climb into the sky. They had left everything behind. Belongings, research, and all the samples. All except one, a small, gray rock Edgas had hidden away somewhere unpleasant. It would be a severe violation if he were caught with it, but he had a promise to keep.

The ship climbed nearly straight into the dark sky, not making a gravity turn, instead burning every last drop of its fuel on an inefficient but direct course that would bring them back to Kerbin in only a few hours. Once spent, the stage was jettisoned, and Edgas adjusted the tiny capsule's course with its own thrusters, leaving the derelict to swing past Kerbin and off into deep space.

For most of the return trip, Edmund never left Billy's side, leaving Edgas to monitor the ship, alone with his thoughts. As he stared out the window towards the diminishing Mün, he could hear Edmund reading to Billy from an old book, something about a great fish, he thought. He stared down at that cold, airless desolation. He wanted to mourn, wanted to weep, but...

I want to cry, but I can't...

Billy was gone, he already knew that. Whatever was left, wasn't him.

There is something down there in the darkness, Edgas thought, not exactly alive, but it has will. And it hates us. He stared down at that heedless, indifferent sliver floating in blackness. He never wanted to go back there. Never wanted to be in space again. No one would ever know what happened down there, he already knew that. There would be questions and inquests, fingers pointed, hands wrung, then everyone would forget they had ever existed. Someone would see to that.

As he stared out the window, his eyes wandered to the hatch above. None of them had their helmets on, of course. For one fleeting moment, he considered reaching up, pulling the emergency release, ending all their troubles in a few humane seconds. But even in his despair, deep down in his being, something stirred. It was withered, weak, dormant. But it lived. Instead, Edgas's hand moved to the attitude control, and he turned the window away from the despised Mün, towards the brightness of Kerbin.

Eventually, Edmund secured Billy, and took his place next to Edgas in the command couch. Their dialogue was sparse, and automatic. Soon the first whisps of superheated plasma glowed in the windows. The now-alien crush of gravity slowly built higher and higher, sparks and flame cascading past the windows as the pod was buffeted and shaken like a victim in the jaws of a predator. Edgas felt sure he would be crushed into nothing, but as minutes stretched on even that subsided. Then there was a jolt, and a bang, as explosive bolts separated the docking adapter and supplemental propulsion package. More jolts, and an unpleasant heaviness as the parachutes deployed, and finally the capsule splashed into the waiting sea.

There was no merriment, no cheer as Edgas popped open the hatch, and the first breaths of fresh air in many weeks filled his lungs. Recovery ships approached, and then it was over.

Deep inside Edgas, a tiny seed stirred. It was atrophied and forgotten, but it lived. It lived.

And it raged against the darkness.

***

Interlude: The Place He Arrived At

Edgas was right, no one ever knew what really happened. There were inquests, and hearings, and panels. All of it lost in the shadow of Duna. In the end, no one really paid attention. At least on the surface. Edmund Kerman took full responsibility for the incidents on the Mün. He received a minor reprimand, and retired quietly to a large property up the beach from the Kerbal Space Center. Billy-Bobrim Kerman was committed to the psychiatric ward of the Kerbin City Sanitorium for the Severely Disabled. His sister visited him often, and always had around her neck a small, gray, sparkly rock on a silver chain. Edgas Kerman was relegated to a desk, deep within the bowels of the Administration Building, where he never had to see the Mün.

Funding for the Münbase project was terminated in its entirety, and redirected towards the planned mission to Duna. Satellite scans had already revealed several anomalies there.

 

Edited May 19, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[KSK]

Superb stuff - right up there with the very best writing on this forum. I don't mind admitting that I was mightily relieved to read that last paragraph and I'm really looking forward to Act II when it comes.

About the chapters - I had a similar problem with the last couple of installments of my story. The secret seems to be to allow some time between posts to avoid the auto-merge.

[Ten Key]

I ran into the same thing with my opening post. I did a little bit of reading in the "forum support" section, and apparently there is no way to override the "auto merge" feature. The only way around it is to either wait a while after the first post, or wait until someone else posts after you.

It's obnoxious, but that's just the way it is.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/108457-Need-help-with-forum%21

[percyPrune]

You rotter! Here I am, about to start taking touirists for jolly holidays on the Mun and you start telling everyone there's something sinister and creepy up there.

Seriously(?) Great work! Hope you get stuck in traffic again soon, so you have time to think up some new chapters

[CatastrophicFailure]

Bleh, ok. Well don't think I'll have any more chapter dumps like that till the very end. There will be a definite end, I've sketched it out, and it it awesome lol:cool:. If I can pull it off. I have an outline for the plot and will keep aiming for 3-4 short chapters a week as long as someone's actually still reading. Edgas still has a long journey ahead of him yet.

[Dres]

I have an outline for the plot and will keep aiming for 3-4 short chapters a week as long as someone's actually still reading. Edgas still has a long journey ahead of him yet.

I'll always read this until the very end, you have a lot of talent.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Chapter 11: The Call

Three years later...

There was a small room deep in a basement. It was sterile, spartan, and always brightly lit. Edgas Kerman spent most of his time there now, surrounded by stacks of paper that always moved but never seemed to change size. His memories of those awful weeks, so long ago now, faded a little more each day, replaced by a numbness that slowly eroded him. He didn't like the term "cover-up." To him, it evoked images of black suits and government conspiracies. Edgas didn't believe in government conspiracies. He didn't think government could be that competent. No, some things were just... forgotten.

So here he sat, in a stuffy, too-warm room, forgetting. He took papers from one stack, glanced at them, stamped them, occasionally made a note, and put them on another stack. In accordance with Paperwork Reduction Directive FML-1138-OMG-LL.

"Deliver company satellite to low Kerbin orbit," said this one. Edgas sighed, made a note, stamped it ACCEPTED-G36, and put it on the stack, where it presumably proceeded to the next layer of bureaucracy. Such was his life now. He left his nondescript apartment just after dawn, took a nondescript bus to his nondescript office, had a nondescript lunch, left again well before sunset, and returned to his nondescript home, where the shades were always drawn and the lights always on.

"Return science data from the surface of Minmus." Stamped, and filed. Every night, Edgas took a large blue pill and slept a dreamless sleep. Except for those nights he woke up screaming in his not-quite-darkened room, flailing and sweating and feeling hands closing around his throat. And always something... something he could never remember. The next morning, the circles under his eyes would be extra dark, if anyone would care to notice.

"Test TT18-A Launch Stability Enhancer while on escape velocity out of the Sun." He stopped, and raised a hand to his face. I swear, some of these must be written by a squad of monkeys, Edgas thought. He stamped it DECLINED, and placed it on a different stack. He was just reaching for another paper when the phone rang.

"Requisitions and Appropriations, Edgas speaking," he answered wearily, hand still pressed against his face.

"Mr. Kerman?" Asked a voice.

"Yes?" Replied Edgas.

"My name is Dr. Kerman, Chief Psychologist at the Kerbin City Sanatorium. It's very important that I speak with you."

Edgas was confused, "I think you're looking for the other Mr. Kerman," he said, rubbing the flat spot between his bulging eyes, "I've already had my required psych eval for the year."

"It's not about you, Mr. Kerman," said the voice, "please, would you be able to make it down here today?"

"I... don't understand..." replied Edgas.

"It's about Billy-Bobrim Kerman. He's been asking for you."

The phone clattered to the floor.

Edited May 21, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[Dres]

Squad jokes are the best! Also, the story seems to deepen immensely with those last lines.

[R_B98]

I'm loving this can't wait to keep reading!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Chapter 12: Moutain

Edgas stood before a towering wrought iron gate, that was currently open. The Kerbin City Sanatorium was a sprawling facility, not far from the space center. More of that tall wrought iron surrounded the psychiatric wing, separating it from the main campus, but otherwise... it was not at all what Edgas expected. It was a squat, modern, two story building covered in mirrored glass. Pleasant manicured gardens, winding paths, trimmed hedges, and fragrant flowers surrounded it within the fences.. Here and there, white-clad patients meandered or sat on benches, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. Several large orderlies could also be seen, in white scrubs, trying unsuccessfully to look like they weren't watching the patients.

There was a wide path from the gate to the main entrance. Edgas swallowed hard. It didn't look all that menacing, but still... every horror story about the trope flooded through his mind. Especially those about being wrongly committed.

After all, the scientist in him said, one could argue there is reason to doubt your sanity.

That's what Edgas told himself, at least. He hadn't seen Billy at all since the medical team pulled him out of the capsule as it bobbed in the sea, and rushed him off into a separate transport. After that, he had only spoken to Anastasia briefly, and that hadn't really been much of a conversation. The two never really got along well, the exchange had been... awkward. More memories came leaking into his mind, painful and unwelcomed like seepage from a festered wound long thought healed. Edgas pushed them out of his mind, gritted his teeth, and walked forward.

Automatic doors swooshed open at the entry, and he stepped inside. The lobby was long, with a large counter at the far end where a receptionist with a patient and helpful look on his face sat. It was flanked on either side by glass walls, behind which were large, open rooms filled with various comfortable-looking chairs and couches. The patients within sat reading, or watching the entertainment box, or just staring vacantly off into space. The orderlies seemed a bit more watchful, and somewhat larger.

Somewhere down a hallway, a speaker crackled, "paging Dr. Kerman, Dr. Kerman, Dr. Kerman."

Edgas warily approached the front desk. "Hello, my name is Edgas Kerman. I'm here to see-"

"Dr. Kerman." Said a voice to his right, "I'm glad you could make it." The owner of the voice was a tall, rather thin Kerbal, with sparse hair and a graying goatee. He wore a long white lab coat, and a shirt that didn't match. A badge read, "S. Kerman." He offered his hand.

"Uh, Edgas, please. Nobody ever calls me that," said Edgas, taking Dr. Kerman's hand but looking right past him at the largest Kerbal Edgas had ever seen. He stood a full head taller than Edgas, which was something of an accomplishment for a Kerbal. Dressed in orderly's white scrubs, with his massive arms crossed over his barrel-like chest, and distinct lack of anything resembling a neck, he gave Edgas the impression of a rather large marshmallow with feet. Edgas kept this assessment to himself, however, as the impassive, unconcerned, slightly bored look on Mr. Marshmallow's face seemed to say, I could break you in half with barely a thought. Right in half.

"So, uh," began Edgas once he tore his gaze away from the white mountain, "what is this all about?"

"We should go where we can speak in private," said Dr. Kerman, and gestured towards the receptionist, "Sondsen here will get you checked in."

And so he did. Edgas was fingerprinted and photographed, his IDs checked and re-checked, and finally issued his own temporary badge from a machine on the counter. He then followed Dr. Kerman down a long, white hallway, followed by Marshmallow, followed by whatever small moons his mass had dragged from their orbits.

"This place. It's... not what I was expecting," Edgas said awkwardly as they walked.

"You've seen too many movies, my friend," replied Dr. Kerman, "this is a place of healing, like any other hospital. And like any other-"

They were passed by three doctors in lab coats, having a very animated argument about something. It seemed to be getting violent. Marshmallow tapped Dr. Kerman gently on the shoulder with a finger as thick as Edgas's arm, nodded towards the group, and grunted.

"Yes, yes, I'll have a chat with the Chief of Staff later," he said to Marshmallow, "I've had about enough of those stooges myself. Now, what was I saying?" He turned back to Edgas, "ah yes. This is a place for sick people to get treatment, but like any other hospital," he paused as they came to a large, heavy set of doors at the end of the hallway, "some of our patients are too ill to leave."

Marshmallow opened one of the massive painted steel doors for them. Edgas was expecting it to make an ominous creaking, but instead he could only hear a light shhhhhhh as it closed with a hydraulic damper. They were now in a short corridor, at the far end was another transparent wall, this one made of polycarbonate or some other impact resistant, slightly flexible plastic. The haze of scratches implied that it had resisted many impacts. In the center of this wall was a single transparent door. The frame and anything else that wasn't transparent was heavily padded. Along the side wall were many thick windows, behind which must have been a guard room.

Dr. Kerman held his badge up to one of the white-clad Kerbals on the other side of the first window. He gave it a long, considering look, then pressed a button somewhere, and a buzzing and loud thunk announced that the transparent door was now unlocked. The three proceeded through the door into another short corridor with another polycarbonate wall and door. The first door closed, its electric lock thunked loudly, then the far door buzzed and thunked. They went through, the door thunked again behind them, and they were before a rather normal-looking set of double doors.

"This is our maximum-security ward," announced Dr. Kerman with a hand on the door, "try to understand, this is a place for people who have demonstrated they are a threat to others. Or themselves." He emphasized the word people.

Edited May 21, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure

[TheAdversary238]

Working a Saturday overtime. My men out sweating their butts off for me, and I'm in my office, with my eyeballs dry as parchment because I couldn't stop reading this. So I registered for my very first post which was to say:

Kudos, you've cost my company 1200$ and I regret nothing.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Thank you.

Edited August 9, 2016 by CatastrophicFailure

[CatastrophicFailure]

Chapter 13: Into the Halls of Madness 

They entered into a large, brightly lit hallway. Lining each wall were more of the transparent-wall-and-door arrangements, each perhaps three meters wide, separated from each other by a stout wall. Hanging on the polycarbonate wall by each door was a placard with a name, and other presumably important information about the resident, as well as a holder for medical charts. The room behind was small, about two meters deep, furnished only with a round-edged table and two or three light, plastic chairs. At the far end of each of these vestibules was a solid wall, and a wide door in the center with a small, square hatch at eye level, covering a window. A pair of orderlies walked the hall, peering into the empty vestibules. Edgas also noticed ceiling-mounted cameras looking into each room.

As they walked past the rows of doors, he could occasionally see shadowy movement through the few window hatches that had been left open. Some of the doors had large red X's on them. These never had open windows. They stopped in front of one such door midway down the hall. Billy's name was on the placard, along with a substantial paragraph of medical jargon.

Billy...

"This is it." Dr. Kerman said. He looked up at the camera across from the door and nodded. The lock buzzed and thunked, and Marshmallow again held the door.

"Have a seat, please, Mr. Kerman," Dr. Kerman said to Edgas, taking one of the chairs at the table. Marshmallow stood by the wall, crossed his arms, and did his best impression of a glacier. A menacing glacier. "So, you're wondering why I asked you here on such short notice."

"Yes..." replied Edgas, still quite bewildered.

"When someone in an acute psychotic dissociative fugue, who hasn't made a coherent sound in all the time he's been here, suddenly begins speaking, one takes notice."

"Is... is that what's wrong with him? What does it mean?"

"It's about the vaguest diagnosis I've ever come across. It's the psychological equivalent of saying the engine just won't run and you don't know why. The truth is, I don't have the slightest idea what's wrong with him, nor does anyone else who's examined him. He's been given every test I've ever heard of, every parameter comes back normal. Everything except one."

"What?"

"His brain activity is off the scale. EEG, EMG, alpha wave analysis, the readings were so high the machines had to be recalibrated. I don't know what's going on in his head but there certainly is a lot of it. Three years with no improvement in his condition, no change in his detachment, and absolutely no underlying physiological cause. That in its self is extremely rare. But then, just a few days ago, he began asking for you."

"What does he say?"

"That's it, just that he needs to see you. Not a word otherwise. Eventually, he gets so agitated that he has to be sedated, but that much is typical for his case. I called you down here because I'm out of ideas, and at this point I don't think anything could hurt. At this point, I would call a witchdoctor, if I thought it would help."

Edgas didn't think the doctor was making a joke. He stood up and moved to the door, gesturing to the window cover, "may I?" Dr. Kerman looked grave, but nodded. Edgas steeled himself, and slid the small hatch open.

And there was Billy. The room was completely empty, the four walls heavily padded. Billy sat huddled in the corner, facing the far wall, secured in a straitjacket. Edgas frowned.

"Is that really necessary?" He said incredulously.

"I'm afraid so," Dr. Kerman replied, "he's been known to attack the staff, or try to injure himself. We can't keep any furniture in the room at all, not even a bed, and it's either this or sedate him to unconsciousness and restrain him on a bed all the time."

Edgas looked back through the window. Billy's face was bandaged, and even from this distance, he could see it just didn't look right. A Kerbal's face shouldn't be so... smooth. Edgas shut the hatch and closed his eyes.

"So what's the catch?" he asked, "what are you expecting from me?"

"I'm afraid I don't know," said Dr. Kerman, "everything will be recorded, of course." He glanced toward the camera in the ceiling, "other than that, I'm just hoping for some kind of change. Some kind of insight into what the problem is. Are you ready?"

Edgas sighed and stepped back. Dr. Kerman walked to the door and inserted a key in the lock. Marshmallow tensed, and for a moment the pressure in the room rose slightly from the air he displaced.

"We will be right out here, watching," Dr. Kerman said, "probably best if we don't cause any influence." He turned the key, and opened the door.

Edited May 23, 2017 by CatastrophicFailure